Classic Football Shirts has sold £4.5m worth of retro football strips around the world, with its best seller being Manchester United’s green and gold 1992 shirt
Doug Brierton (left) and Matt Dale are both 29
Two former students said they have sold more than 750,000 retro football shirts since starting their company.
Classic Football Shirts was started by Doug Brierton and Matthew Dale, both now 29, when they were final year students at Manchester University.
The company, based in a newly bought warehouse in east Manchester, recorded profits of £1.2m last year on sales of £4.5m, which included a £2,500 sale of a Manchester United shirt worn by Cristiano Ronaldo in a match against Celtic in 2006.
Manchester United’s green and gold 1992 strip has been their best ever seller, closely followed by the club’s 94-96 home shirt which was made famous by Eric Cantona wearing the black collar turned up.
The most popular Man City strips have been the 93-95 home shirt that was synonymous with Oasis at the time and the 98-99 away shirt from the Division Two Play-Off Final victory.
Doug said Classic Football Shirts currently has more than 500,000 items in stock. “We set up the company as final year management graduates after spotting a gap in the market. And it grew very quickly,” he said.
“We have sold over 750,000 items since 2006. What’s interesting is that shirts do not necessarily have to be iconic to sell well. We sold around 1,000 of a recent Rochdale shirt because the price was under £5.
“There are now proud owners of Rochdale shirts in Brazil, Argentina, Hong Kong and Indonesia.”
The company employs 15 people and recently completed the purchase of a warehouse based near City’s Etihad Stadium.
Doug and Matthew said 25 per cent of sales happen in the UK, 50 per cent in Asia, mainly China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand plus the USA, and the other 25 per cent is Europe.
“We have a classic section and a clearance section which does really well,” said Doug. “Currently, very popular in our clearance section are Dynamo Kiev and Roma items.
“We export everywhere. Manchester United shirts are the best sellers, ones like the 1999 Champions League winning kit.”
He added: “Every team has a classic shirt that sells. It can depend on the era and success of the club. Liverpool kits in the 80s sell well as does the 2005 Champions League winning kit. City fans tend to be a bit different.”
On turnover hitting the £4.5m mark, Doug said: “We grew quickly year on year at the start but now we are consolidating our position due to a lot of expenditure buying our warehouse this year.
"We have banked with Barclays from the start. When we needed to buy our warehouse recently Barclays helped us.
“We buy directly from individuals from our website as well from clubs and large manufacturers like Adidas. If you watch football then you build memories as the years go by. Everyone can get the shirts from this season but where do you get the old ones from? That’s where we come in.
“The shirts are tied in with great moments from the past and I think that is why we are popular.”
Source: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/retro-football-shirts-winner-manchester-8097170
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